When necessary, the managers of premises open to the public, such as hotels, restaurants, workshops, or others, make articles for wiping available to users. What are involved, as needed, are hand towels, napkins, dust cloths, or other equivalent articles. The products may be made available in dispensing devices, in the form of folded sheets rectangular in shape stacked one on the other or interleaved to form packs containing several dozen units. The dispensers claimed for this invention are boxes more or less parallelepiped in shape which are generally secured to a vertical wall, with a dispensing opening in the lower area of the surface. The invention also relates to dispensers where the sheets that they contain are forced by spring means against the surface, which includes the dispenser opening.
In some cases, for example, in places where there is heavy user traffic, it is desirable to have dispensers of large capacity, which need not be restocked too often.
The problem encountered when a large number of sheets are stacked is that of weight. Even if each sheet of cellulose wadding is light, the stack formed in dispensers of large capacity may weigh 2 to 3 kilograms. When the device is full, a user experiences a certain amount of difficulty in extracting sheets. The resistance encountered may be enough to tear the paper.
It is not possible to use high-capacity dispensers in certain applications involving very soft products of very low mechanical strength.
This phenomenon is accentuated when a user tries to extract a sheet with wet hands, as is the case with hand towels, or when the user applies an extraction force to a limited area, as is the case with table napkins, which are extracted with the ends of the fingers.
In order to remedy this problem the proposal has already been made to provide rigid knobs inside the compartment containing the products, in the lower part of the compartment. These rigid knobs form a narrow passage effectively ensuring a certain amount of restraint. They are not entirely satisfactory, however, to the extent that they block the entire pack when the weight of the latter is not great enough to cause it to clear the obstacle. These braking means are efficient when the compartment is full and the stack is heavy, but become troublesome when the compartment is almost empty, since they then impede access to the products, which tend to remain wedged inside the dispenser.
A proposal has also been made for metal plates inclined at an angle to the vertical, plates, which form a narrowed passage slowing descent of the sheets. The problem is the same, since ultimately an entire pack is held back.